Question – I find it such a challenge to lose the computer lab from the 16th of April until the end of May for CRT testing. Any suggestions?
Response – We feel this teacher’s pain as well as a number of you who submitted similar questions regarding lab use and other issues. We continually lobby the USOE to create tests that do NOT have to be administered exclusively in a computer lab setting. As such, the current testing model for CRT’s demands lab settings and prescribes the testing window. However, soon all of our schools will have student response devices (clickers) this year that will allow for Granite’s online assessments – quarterly benchmarks and the Acuity Progress Screener – to be administered in the classroom if the teacher so desires. We wish the same were true for the CRT’s, but we’re not in charge of them. We hope that with the rise of alternative technologies that more of these types of assessments can be performed directly in the classroom with a reduced need for computer labs overall.
Please know that the 5-Year Plan contemplates one-to-one student technology AND the infrastructure to support it. The superintendent considers computer labs an anachronism and we’re looking to build the research, production and assessment capacity of a lab into each classroom.
Thanks to the Teaching and Learning Department for their assistance in responding to this question.